LINKING LIFE QUESTIONS TO CREATE OUR PEACEFUL CO-EXISTING FUTURE

 

In some parts of the Northern hemisphere, spring has sprung.  While in others, it is barely springing as we approach the spring equinox.  Of course the Southern hemisphere it is the fall equinox.

This questionable seasonal shift is somewhat arguable as the point of this feeling climate change’s effect on those compartmental lines of time and season on the calendar, but at this moment in our space and time as humanity in our altered timeline amid a pandemic, it may feel blurred to the point of feeling indifferent.

Though these points are the whole contextual point of comprehending our balance in energy, watching humanity’s very own duality of springing to rise and descending to fall, no different than nature’s tide – it is here we understand the universal laws of life, even if we are disappointed with what we see.

This video was created 20 year ago. The song itself is 50 years old.

How relevant is this video TODAY if we look at what we’ve seen over the last year to present day amplified to what has been going on every day in every community in the world, where some of this never makes the news or goes viral.  It is here I question where the heck we’re going and more so question the applicable relevant context of present-day news and literally ‘What’s Goin’ On?’ in our society.

I’ve intentionally avoided blogging and social media for some time now… NOT due to laziness, nor neglect, but due to the idea that the aforementioned seasons of present change have left me with a lot to think about and even more to say to the point that my own excessive verbosity would feel unsettled, even if I chose to use my voice at this time with volumes and thousands of pages of text. 

Too much is going on to clarify what is going on so I’d rather be authentic and say that at this time of “processing,” formulating, understanding and excavating my own thoughts, emotions and journey – recent painful violent events are continuing to dig up the questions resurfacing from the U.S. Japanese internment camp reality into ‘WTF are we seeing in 2021?’ having to declare we as people are not a virus.  This isn’t a time to merely shout out a #metoo in racism, amid sexism and ageism labeling first-hand experiences cuz no one cares about family history, nor my personal journey. I’d rather proactively be on the other side to address solution assessment for progressive education further educating from an elementary and fundamental level leadership space.   

Sometimes one must pull back and watch the @*#_& show that occurs with the barrage of commentary that happens whether or not two cents was requested, warranted or relevant.

When one does so, it is enlightening to see how we as humanity utilize our ‘time’ talking instead of doing, how we passively or actively participate at a time when we should be doing our own inventory, revisiting our own thoughts, principles, values and feelings from a REAL PLACE, not ones for show to be on some bandwagon to nowhere until the next #hashtag.

I have an oil/water love/hate relationship with social media, not that I need to justify my personal sabbatical absences, however, I will transparently share that while there are many people there who choose to use it for good; too many others bully and attempt to traumatize those of us trying to use it for good, who are going through their own processing of emotions at a time when we’re all questioning our fate and faith.  It is here that spinning one’s wheels to avoid trolls sometimes amid the arena of crickets and passive observers is not healthy, and one must reclaim boundaries for well-being in order to continue to fight the good fight.

This journey is sacred and personal to everyone. You and your path are yours and how you evolve from this path forward is what you set forth to declare or redefine on your terms as our world takes on a new shape of being and doing.

Change as we know is constant. 

Events are meant to prompt us to ask questions.

So let me ask you A LOADED QUESTION:

What questions are we asking ourselves now in the name of systemic racism, violence, mental and emotional health and well-being, and what we are seeing unfolding in history which repeats itself amid supposed evolutionary constant change when some things are not changing?

Does it seem as if we make two steps forward, as society takes three steps back?

Do we notice our own questioning of life and said meaning of life evolve with how we want to live our life and come to a resolve rather than just regurgitating a repeating history when we perceive we’re making progress?

I ask these questions as I wonder, ponder and dissect answers depending on POV with both immersion and perspective lens alteration in compartmentalization; mental/emotional and physiological realities and the spiritual evolutionary ones.  I ask what it means to be present and look ahead to a future we hope will change by being part of said change, but internally questioning if the rest of the world is ready for the peace it is we seek.

SOLUTIONS are part of world-seeking soul-searching quests that may or may not be part of everyone’s purposeful presence.  The pandemic has left a good portion of the population looking at life through new eyes, different choices in how to perceive life’s meaning.

While change is constant, I question humanity’s ‘wish list’ of wanting change; actually facilitating said change, those talking but not walking change and those who continue to fight to be the actual change even as the single water drop Mother Teresa indicated could be the mass ripple.

It is troublesome to see those touting diversity and inclusion and universal acceptance who know nothing about discrimination first-hand, although it may appear to be surface-level progress to see baby-steps in change of wanting to see it. 

We just need more concrete substantial forward-movement actions to adhere and be more than just words.  I see many utilizing the legal disclaimers of providing equality, yet those whose boards of directors first two or three top hierarchy rows not reflecting it in gender, race, age, or disability or multi-combination of sorts.  I’ve encountered racist A.I. advertising and job bots who don’t have the emotional intelligence within their artificial intelligence to discern how to apply a sensitivity chip in assessing matches amid a barrage of racial violence newsfeeds.  The disturbing part of this is that they were programmed by actual humans, so where does that leave us?

Yet here we are – 2021 seeing what we are seeing.  As we all question where the heck we’re going from what once was to what is and what we’re all going to do about it.

We all know violence and war is not the answer, yet it is still present.

We all know racism and prejudice must end, but it hasn’t.  

At this point T-shirts, art, music and company statements are not enough... though nice gestures, they are mere baby steps to walking the talk of the advertisement of just words.

Education is a start, but where does it lead in real change?

Representation is welcomed, severely needed and needs to be widened even further for we have a lot of work to do, but will that solve the ignorance, violence and intolerance?

What can we do with where we are with what we have to change that, and what will effectively support the sustained change?

What are we learning and applying in this moment?

I ask these questions not just to ask them, but to prompt internally within everyone to see what your answers have become over time and are still becoming as we see that in hundreds of years what has and hasn’t changed.

Supposedly humanity knows right vs. wrong.  Yet we are seeing what we are seeing.

Supposedly ancestors meant well or were naïve, sheltered, ignorant or generationally transferred beliefs, so how do we break the cycle?

If love can conquer hate ---- But people cannot love themselves enough to know what that looks like within to externally live and breathe it unconditionally outward radiating in our world in step with our brothers and sisters, what are we doing?

Are we in a world living in an infinite loop or reminders from history repeating?

How is this acceptable?  When will education be enough?  When will living by example be enough?

And how will all of the above conquer, banish the hatred, prejudice and ugliness we’re seeing?

Whether that exists in business, personal, our communities, justice systems … where can real change be supported and how can that mission be sustained?

As we look forward to creating communication forums to discuss our thoughts and feelings, our ideas for problem-solving and developing solutions for the world we all want to ultimately see and wish to live in, there are days when I wonder if this is somehow an eternal battle.

Will we forever be on a never-ending mission to create co-existence, understanding, acceptance, tolerance and real substantial change that can actually endure instead of having to revisit starting over on repeat like an infinite phoenix-rising time and time again with something that cannot be sustained?

I remember watching an old interview on Merv Griffin’s talk show where he once stated he believed that there would eventually be such a melting pot of mixed ethnicities to where one day (!) no one would be able to tell the entire makeup of anyone’s background and what a world that would be, because there would be a little piece of the whole world within everyone’s DNA. 

Cut to: a discussion I had with several co-workers just a few years ago, who had just done some ancestry tests to discover they were made up of seven or eight different backgrounds when they had believed to be just one or two and only declared/labeled themselves as such, realizing this in itself was very limiting to do.

Cut to: current-day minority groups who may believe someone is not “_____” enough to qualify to be classified or labeled as such to belong to said group… this is also problematic and feels like it is counterproductive to said mission.

I live for the day we all celebrate each other and remove labels that restrict movement, rather only unite instead of divide and hope to see the change while being the change in some aspect as a single water drop. 

I live for the day when we can be on a united front to work together instead of being forced to segregate into our own so-called groups to make/create change and amplify voices to be heard, because we’ll all be welcomed with a seat at the table. 

I live for the day when I don’t have to express myself in a blog to purge my thoughts and feelings about a subject like this, because it won’t need to be discussed to have to ask questions that will already automatically have answers readily available as solutions-in-the-making.

Some say this is a dream of mine that will remain unfulfilled…. But I will continue to ask the hard questions to prompt the internal work and see if we dare LINK that to the solutions WE ALL CREATE TOGETHER to move this conversation forward into said dream fulfillment through our joint efforts, actions, realization and actualization.  Amen.

Namaste.

Stacey Kumagai

www.linkronicity.com

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RELEASING LINKS AND TETHERS TO YOUR PRE-COVID LIFE

 

We as humanity know one thing… change is constant.

Making our way forward has been a curious process with the promise of a new day, new inventions, creations and innovation with creative pivots.

For much of humanity, the anticipation of returning to a life pre-COVID has been weighing heavily on everyone’s mind.

Everyone went through the process of shock and disbelief; grieving/mourning; feeling lost and uncertain; to the other side of ‘what will we do now in a world that is changing.’

This is a process that no one is immune to experiencing, no matter where you live in the world, and how your own bubble of your own world was affected by this pandemic.

Yes, we miss those wintery days of gathering at a charming pop-up village market, browsing the aisles of the creature comforts to bring something new home to try to get us to spring.

Yes, we miss those springtime flower fields and the promise of that first vacation break to explore new horizons.

Yes, we miss those long summer balmy days, where music concerts and festivals took us into lovely sunsets and crowded beaches, which we used to complain about and now see just how lucky we were to experience the ten hours of Vitamin D days, cookouts and picnics, enjoying events of the season.

Yes, we miss autumn, feeling the brisk air reminiscent of our back-to-school days, taking the fall strolls to coffee and tea houses enjoying all things pumpkin and long conversations with our friends with time passing by hours later to ‘what shall we go do next?’

Those were the days, and while we will experience some of this when we return, and have make-shifted during this time, it probably won’t be without the face masks, and ‘lingering’ in any one place too long, and sadly, much of our ‘old stomping grounds’ may have disappeared succumbing to their economic and business losses.

We may not be able to say, “I love coming to XYZ place, as I used to come here when I was little with my parents/family.”

We may miss some of the long-staying iconic local community gathering places to socialize, and instead have traded them for glitch-y frozen screen bandwidth exchanges instead.

We may miss handshakes, hugs and the human stuff we used to do to the degree we used to connect, as our new world may leave others more conscious of said connections and not give consent to this kind of interaction, due to safety.

We may have shifted our own perception in what it means to communicate more consciously with regard to the comfort zone of others, not just our own need for expression.

Embracing the reality of how each individual person chooses to live life forward from here is a very conscious choice. 

We have to be compassionate and respect every choice as it relates to how everyone emerges from said pandemic.  We may inevitably find ourselves in a ‘different world’ – where adapting the behavior of social-distancing has become such a new and adopted habit that there may be people walking 6 ft. or further from us even two or three years out of said pandemic.

We may find friends we used to travel with, have made decisions never to do so again.

We may find that people are deliberately choosing to LIVE DIFFERENTLY, realizing what they can do and do without, finding their own metamorphosis of individual life changes.

But what we must do is honor and respect each other’s choices – because we have not walked in their shoes, or experienced what they have, inclusive of numerous deaths or even experiencing rough bouts of the disease themselves, and making different choices going forward.

There has been much economic hardship across the globe, with many finding ways to bounce back and being more cognizant of where and with whom, they are putting their hard-to-find- dollars.

There is also the concept of TIME and what that means for every human on this planet in where they choose to invest said time, as many find their way to not waste it or finally give permission for themselves to enjoy it in ways they have not done before.

It is important for humans to not take things too personally at this point of the juncture, for our own purposeful evolution was to be conscious of what resonates better for our highest and greatest good.

This is as true for adults as it is for the adults making decisions for their children.  There may be some kids who do not return to playgrounds with other kids – we may not see that going forward.  We may see some finding productive ways to introduce socialization in more educational community ways.

There may be many offices choosing to keep all of their employees remotely safe for liability, insurance and well-being reasons, with the bonus of saving of commercial leases, parking, security, and such, with the focus of shorter work-weeks or more personal time, seeing the value of greater productivity when said balance is struck.

We have recognized that much of the world has adapted to new habits, new rituals and new ways of being and living.

These are just a few of the changes and LINKS in our LIFE CHAIN we see, or may not even fully realize in how we used to ‘tether ourselves’ to a way of existing, living and being .  The evolved way of our choices in communicating differently from our own minds to our physical world is in flux, transforming every day.  Our hearts have shifted to understanding more compassionately and yes, our soul’s communication consciousness in what we once deemed as ‘the only way to be or do things.’

As we shifted into adapting to new protocols of the pandemic, we had to change our communication to be clear about health and safety, for the well-being of ourselves and each other.

What we need to look at now once the world gets vaccinated, is that even with said vaccinations, we will not return to a life pre-Covid, for that is an old timeline.

Many humans have been in an on-going grieving process of said ‘old life’ with nostalgic glimpses of the past – as it is evident in news stories, social media and yes, even consumer purchases reminding humanity of what represents the ‘comfort zone’ of ‘perceived comfort/safety’ in what it once represented. 

We’re seeing the retro-mode revive in ways that we have not seen in a long time, with new generations of online people discovering old movies, old music and finding ‘newness’ in the old – in what appears to be some Twilight Zone time shift dynamic.  Old books and classic stories are being discovered in what is a hibernation quarantine binge-reading of said stories.

With the tragic and unfortunate death of many artists, some of their work is being recognized by a new generation and new audience for the very first time across paintings, poetry, music, film, television and theatrical performances as our stage venues have been closed.

Part of this is very exciting art revival is key to preservation of what was created for deeper appreciation and respecting what we had – from architecture and design, community, historic benchmarks and yes, even what was the ‘norm’ – which is no longer, which includes places our older generations of relatives once experienced, that are now gone.

So how do we release our tethered links and wishes for ‘this old life’ and gracefully change and adapt to the idea that even post-pandemic, we’ll have a world we don’t recognize in the same light as we once had before, pre-Covid?

The whole universal message is clear in that our humanity lesson was to see what we could do, who we could be, and look at possibilities of changing for the better in our human consciousness as well as our own soul evolution.

If this message has been lost on you or anyone you know, now is the time to embrace this change, because we have learned as world citizens that is our responsibility and consciousness to LIVE DIFFERENTLY.

It DOES NOT MEAN that you have to deny yourself of exploring ‘what was’ – for education, awareness and appreciation of the past is key to building a better future.

If you have been battling health issues during this time, you see how time has its own timeline and healing.  What has been the most prominent thing you’ve learned about yourself and how you consciously take the time to recognize that every moment and breath is precious, and prioritizing of your mindfulness is not ‘something you do later when XYZ chores are done – or after you take care of ________(fill in the blank) rather, if you are actively listening to your body to do something, you do it now?’

How are you seeing broken systems in your own life (and the world you are exploring through your battle) that can be changed for the better and how you can be part of it?

If you have been overly conscious of your own habits in your choices of how you clean, live, practice safety than you were before, how mindful are you that you will KEEP these practices to prevent other illnesses, disease, and even the common cold going forward?   What ways are you seeing how you can respect all of your loved ones in a way you did not before, now taking every action you do as something important to preserve human life, well-being and wellness?

If you have changed your work situation, how have you seen that work/life balance is key to your own mental health well-being, your emotional growth and your physical stamina to make time for what is more important than the electronic device in front of you?

If you have quarantined 90%+ most of the time, how have you changed your own appreciation of our planet, nature, respecting what you took for granted in recognizing that the world is indeed yours and that you can do better at taking care of it by being responsible and doing your part to reduce your own carbon footprint in recycling all those boxes you’ve received in your delivery shipments? 

If you have witnessed your own sense of ‘space and time’ – how has this changed in the ways you articulate to yourself and your community in how you use these same precious 24 hours daily that we are given, in doing what is possible to maximize the value of said given day?

Our communication about all of these bullet points above is key to our own evolution and transformation, and our lives during this Covid-19 period was meant to have us see within ourselves and within each other, the exact changes that were meant to take place in RESPECTING human life, the planet, time, the connection to ourselves, honoring history, the past, pushing forth meaningful works to honor and understand each other and our words in what we express as individuals as well as a collective. 

We can healthfully release our tethers and links to our previous life, with the full mind-body consciousness of what it is that matters to each of us individually, collectively and within our own communities of what we fight for, preserve, see through, and yes, adapt for the betterment of our world, each other and our efforts in respecting what was, in creating something that will be and finding the beautiful harmonic balance of honoring both in a new way, through our new tomorrow.

Sending blessings, love, light and insight to you, Lovely Souls.

Namaste.

Stacey Kumagai

www.linkronicity.com

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